Truthfully,
it is Thanksgiving week and not yet the Advent Season.
However,
since Jesus Christ is alive, has come {Advent} and remains with us {Emmanuel} and
most assuredly is my Lord, { Savior} and gives me daily purpose {Father GOD
Almighty}, then to write my annual Christmas newsletter is timely whenever I
send it. J
What
a magnificent year 2012 has become, as I excitedly claim my 12th
grandchild and realize afresh the frailty of life and the importance of Knowing
God before you Need God!
With
the Facebook phenomenon as the tip of the technologically overloaded iceberg, some would say my life is an open book and
what more is there to say in the newsletter?
I decided long ago to document my years by reviewing the Lord’s mercies
to me each Christmas, so this is my written status update J for 2012.
Theodore
Ribeiro Elsenheimer, on June 22, 2012 rocked our world with his timely,
terrifying arrival. Interestingly, summer solstice was June 21, and it is
supposedly the longest day of the year. I am going to challenge that date this
year, however, and say that Teddy’s birth day was by far hours longer for any
of us involved in his story! Did you see that I call him Teddy? His mom and dad
[Rachel and Aric} call him Theodore, or Theo, and within the family there are
several versions of his name. No matter what WE call him, I will always know he
was called by God to give us joy unspeakable as he struggled through his first
weeks of life. Joy because God answered our heart cries, and unspeakable
because there will never be words to contain the emotions that kept us on our
knees before God’s mighty throne of grace.
My
summer trip to New Mexico was so filled with all things Teddy that I almost
forgot to mention I returned from there on a mother/daughter road trip with My
mom! We saw lots of country as we drove
back to Tennessee, via the Texas Panhandle and states that were so monotonous I
felt sorry for the Wagon Trains of years gone by! Mom and I had a good time together
and even though I never saw a Rattlesnake, I did watch a skinny coyote slink
away into the cactus, and THAT was worth the trip! J I am going again, I hope, but first checking
with Guy Fieri on HGTV Diners and Drive Ins to see where we should eat.
Admittedly,
I have a poor memory, so just to be certain that I did not forget a major life event
I checked my date book. There were dates marked, mostly family and friends
surgeries and births, an occasional crisis, all things to pray for and about. Grandson Ethan has a habit of writing his name
in my datebook when he visits, so there were lots of ETHAN
scribbles scattered throughout.
It would appear that an entire year raced by and sweet
baby Teddy claims the place of MOST IMPORTANT event in my world! He joins the
ranks of an 11 year old Eliot, 10 year old Simon, 9 year old Jesse, 7 year old Nora,
6 year olds Isabel, Ava, Ethan, Bianca, Aidan and Evelyn, and formerly the baby
grandson… Luke. How blessed is my world- an amazing gift!
The beauty of gifts is that they are undeserved,
unexpected, not linked at all to deeds or actions or personality
characteristics, good or bad. They just are given to us in love by someone who
loves us. I thank God so much for loving me , not because of who I am,
what I have done, who I am not married to, what my mood is. My gift from Him,
first of all in giving me access to the throne of grace~ HIM , by sending Jesus
Christ to have experienced what I deserve is almost unspeakable. The gift He has
given me of children, and then grandchildren, only shows me how much He indeed
loves me, personally and perfectly, and I will thank Him forever for this. I
thank Him that I have forever, too, and thus ends this year’s Christmas story
from me to you, my dear ones. None of us knows when our story on earth comes to
a final chapter, we should make certain that everything is said and done that
needs to be.
Merry Christmas! I love you, no matter that it
looks differently for each one, it remains sincere.
PS. I think I am getting old, I heard myself call
a child ‘sweetie’ last week. L
yikes.
